Annotated Appendix: Elena

This is an episode I have been dreading since starting this whole thing, which is probably why it took so long to come out. For a game series that trades in broad stereotypes, I've never felt comfortable with Elena. She always felt just a little off to me. Turns out, the more digging I did, the more she is to Street Fighter what "Brown Sugar" is to the Rolling Stones; something that was never a good idea.

To be fair to her, Capcom hasn't exactly been kind to Black characters. Balrog/Boxer is the definition of the "angry Black man" trope, just to give an example. In Elena's case, though, what probably started as good intentions came out in ugly ways, especially since, according to basically all of the art that Capcom has published with her in it, she's basically the teenage fuck bunny of the series. That makes things a whole lot worse. 

Trust me when I say that there was a lot I left on the cutting room floor in terms of Elena and how icky things are with her. And also trust me that I didn't write this episode in a vacuum. I'm a 40 year-old white dude, after all, and I needed other sets of eyes on this script before I even began collecting footage. This passed through a few hands of Black creators that I trust and a PhD faculty member of Gender and Race studies just to be sure I wasn't veering out into a lane I had no business in. 

But that doesn't mean that this episode won't rile some people up. To them, well, that's the breaks. Elena comes off as a racist character to me. That's what this videos about.

Luckily, Dudley is (somehow) the polar opposite to this, but we'll tackle that soon.

Annotated Appendix: Hugo

Want to know a secret? I know next to nothing about professional wrestling. I mean, I'm a dude that just turned 41 so I watched all of that old-timey WWF stuff from the 80s that was a playground requirement, but anything after I hit 6th grade and I just shrug my shoulders. Lucky for me the Venn Diagram of gamers and wrestling fans is a nearly perfect circle, so it was easy to find some technical advisement. I probably really screwed something up (and I'm sure I will be told) but I don't know. I think I faked it pretty well! Thanks, Andre!

This is an episode that seems to be hotly anticipated by my small, beautiful cult (and I love each and every one of you), and I think I can guess why: The Andre thing is so blatant, and there's so much proven history about this character that I think folks just want it confirmed for them. I hope you enjoy all of it in as tidy a package as I could make for you. It was super fun to research, and since the script came quickly and a little more tightly than the Ken episode, this is one of those magical moments where everything just flowed like it should.

EXCEPT when I edited things together. It turns out that adhering to a certain format painted me into a corner with this one because I had to shoehorn in Hugo's Arcade mode path someplace. It just feels super awkward and I wish that I could have found a better way that isn't so obviously crammed in. In fact, this was the first time I considered knowingly dropping it from episode. Have a plan and stick to it, I guess. Still very unhappy with my own planning here, and now you'll never un-see it, either. 

Things that should have been in this episode: For all of the talk of 2nd Impact, I probably should have found a way to show more footage of it. Hugo, for instance, has an infinite, I believe. I mean, there's not a whole lot of reason to show any of it per the script, but the episode feels a bit empty without it.

The other is a video I am still sure existed at some point, but maybe I'm just going lockdown nuts. For the life of me, I remember a promo trailer for Street Fighter X Tekken that made a vague joke about Poison's gender, but I cannot find it anywhere. I took to Twitter and a mutual that used to work for GameTrailers (RIP) couldn't recall it, either, so maybe I've just been hallucinating all of these years. I swear it's out there, though, and you can hear me reference it just after talking about Ono.

It probably could have also used better match footage, I guess. My players aren't experts with the character, even though they definitely have some skill. So with that, here are the videos that are worth a look if you're down to pick up Hugo:

SFV player/ streamer AutoMattock is also a 3rd Strike believer and made a nice video covering some high-concept Hugo play. Not necessarily a tutorial video on the character, but some good ground to cover. I give him a shout in the episode. Seems like a nice enough cat. 

For PhD Hugo study, though, there are two well-know Japanese masters: Hayao and YSB. A quick YT search will net you plenty of footage to comb through (both still regularly play at Game Newton exhibitions in Japan), but go-to 3S channel Feetwork 101 has a great breakdown of YSB play. I generally gain a new appreciation for every character that I cover, but I don't think I'll really mess around with this guy now that this episode is out the door. Watching this video, though, makes me occasionally reconsider.

One last thing: try to count all of the Princess Bride references. Do it. Count them.

Closing out on something not necessarily connected, with the pandemic not slowing down, FGC tournaments are doing the best they can to give players an avenue to test their mettle. I think this is worth supporting. Today, in fact, Chicago major Frosty Faustings announced their annual midwinter event will be completely online with totally free entry fees. The format for each game is platform-specific, and 3rd Strike will have theirs over Fightcade 2, which is pretty nice. Even if you get pounded into dirt, everybody should enter this. If you've got a PC that's wired to the internet, the only thing you'll lose is your time. 

Thanks again for sticking with me!